Art Knowledge News - Keeping You in Touch with the World of Art...

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• The National Gallery in London Shows a Major Exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci
• Morton´s Auction House Sale of Important Latin-american Works of Art
• The Berlinische Galerie Displays “Art in Berlin 1880 – 1980”
• The Nationalgalerie Hamburger Bahnhof Shows Paul Laffoley's "Secret Universe"
• Walt Disney Animation Cels Featured in Leslie Hindman Auctioneers Illustration Art Auction
• Pangolin London Exhibits Figurative Sculptures by Anthony Abrahams
• The Guggenheim Presents an Exhibition Focused on Vasily Kandinsky
• Our Editor Visits Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz ~ One Of The Most Important Museums of Modern & Contemporary Art in Austria
• Met Museum's Installation Positions African Masks with Works by Modern & Contemporary Artists
• 12th Annual Art London to Open in Chelsea with More than 70 Art Galleries
• Albertina Museum shows The Collection of Eberhard W. Kornfeld
• Marc Chagall's Illustrations for Gogol's "Dead Souls" at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art
• With More Than 80 Galleries Art Dubai Presents Its Most Diverse Edition To Date
• Tamara de Lempicka's Art Deco Paintings on View for the First Time in Mexico City
• " EAT ART " Exhibition opens at the Kunsthalle Dusseldorf
• The Walters Art Museum to exhibit "Heroes: Mortals & Myths in Ancient Greece"
• The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute to show 19th Century Photographs of Rome
• Lentos Art Museum celebrates Oskar Kokoschka ~ A Vagabond in Linz : Wild & Denigrated
• Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review"

The National Gallery in London Shows a Major Exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci Posted: 09 Nov 2011 10:01 PM PST London.- What is undoubtedly the most eagerly awaited blockbuster exhibition of the 21st century opened earlier this week at the National Gallery in London. "Leonardo Da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan", will remain on view through February 5th 2012 and is truly a landmar exhibition. Concentrating on his career as a court painter in Milan, working for the city's ruler Ludovico Maria Sforza, il Moro ('the Moor') in the 1480s and 1490s, the exhibition brings together the largest ever number of Leonardo's rare surviving paintings, it will include international loans never before seen in the UK. Private and institutional lenders have proved exceptionally generous, taking full and proper account of the serious scholarly ambition of this project. While numerous exhibitions have looked at Leonardo da Vinci as an inventor, scientist or draughtsman, this is the first exhibition to be dedicated to his aims and ambitions as a painter. 'Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan' will display more than 60 paintings and drawings by the great artist, as well as pictures by some of his closest collaborators. Nearly every surviving picture that he painted in Milan during this period will be exhibited. These include the 'Portrait of a Musician' (Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan), the 'Saint Jerome' (Vatican, Rome), 'The Lady with an Ermine' (Czartoryski Foundation, Cracow), the 'Belle Ferronnière' (Musée du Louvre, Paris) and the National Gallery's own recently restored Virgin of the Rocks. Leonardo, a musician himself, worked closely with other musicians, designing musical instruments and devising settings for courtly entertainments. It was during this time that he painted his only portrait of a man – 'The Portrait of a Musician'. The highly idealised 'Belle Ferronnière' may be a portrait of Ludovico il Moro's duchess or of one of his mistresses. But the most justly celebrated of the three is the exquisite portrait of Il Moro's mistress Cecilia Gallerani, 'The Lady with an Ermine', arguably his greatest masterpiece of these years. The exhibition also oncludes "Savator Mundi", a painting once sold for £45 at auction, but which has nowbeen identified as a work by Leonardo Da Vinci and is estimated to be worth a world record £120million. "Salvator Mundi (Saviour of the World", depicts Christ with his right hand raised in blessing and his left hand holding a globe. It was previously attributed to a pupil of Da Vinci. But now an international group of experts has established that it was by the master himself. The portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, painted in 1488–90 has been acclaimed as the first truly modern portrait. The sitter's twisting pose and nuanced expression convey her inner life, mind, soul – and what we would now call psychology. Cecilia was renowned for her beauty, wit, scholarship, and poetry. Still in her teens in 1489 when she became Ludovico's mistress, the painting of her portrait allowed Leonardo to demonstrate how a painter could capture a beauty that time would destroy. He portrayed Cecilia holding a white ermine, an enigmatic feature that has multiple meanings. It may be a visual pun on her surname since the Greek for ermine or weasel is 'galay'. It could also stand for her lover, Ludovico Sforza, since he had been awarded the order of the ermine by the King of Naples and was known as 'l'Ermellino' as a result. The ermine was also written about by Leonardo as a traditional symbol of purity and honour. More than 50 drawings relating to the paintings will be exhibited for the first time. Highlights include 33 sketches and studies from the Royal Collection. The many Leonardo drawings owned by Her Majesty the Queen were probably purchased during the reign of Charles II but were rediscovered by chance only in 1778, when writer, Charles Rogers wrote: 'Mr Dalton fortunately discovered the album of drawings at the bottom of a chest at the beginning of the reign of his present Majesty [George III]'. UK collections are rich in drawings by Leonardo – and other graphic masterpieces will be lent by the British Museum, the Courtauld Gallery, the Fitzwillam and Ashmolean Museums and the National Galleries of Scotland. From further afield come drawings from Paris, Florence, Venice and New York. These pictures show how Leonardo, benefiting from his salaried position, used his artistic freedom to find new ways of perceiving and recording the natural world - focusing especially on the human anatomy, soul and emotions. These investigations could take on their own life, but they also fed into the meanings and evolution of his paintings. Leonardo da Vinci's time in Milan was the making of him – both as an artist and as a public figure. It was in Milan that Leonardo executed his two profoundly different versions of the mysterious 'Virgin of the Rocks', as well as the almost uncannily perfect wall-painting of 'The Last Supper'. This work will be represented in the exhibition by a near contemporary, full-scale copy by his pupil Giampietrino (1500–1550), lent by the Royal Academy. Leonardo also painted a trio of portraits that were to revolutionalise the genre – pictures that will be seen together in London for the first time. The exhibition will include all the surviving drawings which are connected to the 'Last Supper' and the 'Madonna Litta', which will be lent by the State Hermitage, St Petersburg. Leonardo was born in or near Vinci in Tuscany and was trained in Florence by the sculptor-painter Andrea del Verrocchio. In about 1482-3 he moved to Milan, slightly later finding work as a court artist for the ruling Sforza family. He remained there until just after the city was invaded by the French in 1499. He may have visited Venice before returning to Florence in 1500. A second period in Milan lasted from 1506 until 1513, and it was then that he finished the London 'Virgin of the Rocks'; this was followed by three years based in Rome. In 1517, at the invitation of the French king, Leonardo moved to the Château de Cloux, near Amboise in France, where he died in 1519. The first paintings in the National Gallery collection came from the banker and collector John Julius Angerstein. They consisted of Italian works, including a large altarpiece by Sebastiano del Piombo, "The Raising of Lazarus", and fine examples of the Dutch, Flemish and English Schools. In 1823 the landscape painter and art collector, Sir George Beaumont (1753 – 1827), promised his collection of pictures to the nation, on the condition that suitable accommodation could be provided for their display and conservation. The gift of the pictures was made in 1826. They went on display alongside Angerstein's pictures in Pall Mall until the whole collection was moved to Trafalgar Square in 1838. Initially, the Gallery had no formal collection policy, and new pictures were acquired according to the personal tastes of the Trustees. By the 1850s the Trustees were being criticised for neglecting to purchase works of the earlier Italian Schools, then known as the Primitives. Following the reform of Gallery administration in 1855, the new Director travelled throughout Europe to purchase works for the Gallery. In the 10 years that he was Director, Sir Charles Eastlake ensured that the Gallery's collection of Italian painting expanded and widened in scope to become one of the best in the world. Eastlake's purchases included Botticelli's "Adoration of the Kings" and Uccello's, "The Battle of San Romano". In 1871 the Gallery's collection was broadened yet further, when 77 paintings were bought from the collection of the late Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel. These consisted mainly of Dutch and Flemish paintings, and included Hobbema's "The Avenue at Middleharnis". From the very beginning, the National Gallery's collection had included works by British artists. By the mid-1840s, the rooms of the National Gallery had become overcrowded. When Robert Vernon presented a large gift of British works to the Gallery in 1847, they had to be displayed elsewhere: first at Vernon's private house, and later at Marlborough House. Not long afterwards, the artist Joseph Mallord William Turner bequeathed over 1000 paintings, drawings and watercolours. When they came into the collection in 1856, they had to be displayed at South Kensington, along with the Vernon collection, which was moved from Marlborough House. In 1876 the National Gallery was enlarged, and the paintings were returned to Trafalgar Square. Following the completion of the Sainsbury Wing in 1991, the Gallery has a total floor area of 46,396 metres squared - equivalent to around six football pitches. It would be big enough to hold over 2,000 London double-decker buses. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk

Morton´s Auction House Sale of Important Latin-american Works of Art Posted: 09 Nov 2011 08:54 PM PST Mexico City.- On very few occasions have so many important works of art from Mexican and Latin-American painters have been offered in the same auction. This November 10th in Morton Casa de Subastas the different faces of Latin-American art will all be present, from portraits to still lives, to monumental pieces from the great masters of contemporary abstracts. The expressions of colour manifest the spirit of this land, one which surpasses the frontiers of the region and bring an added value to their voices. All of these works of art will be offered, works of art from renowned artists from the caliber of: Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Francisco Zúñiga, Juan Soriano, Guillermo Meza and Ricardo Martínez, to name but a few. Great female artists are lso represented with works by María Izquierdo, Cordelia Urueta, Lilia Carrillo, Valetta Swann and Silvia H. González. Latin-American art at its finest by Kcho, Eduardo Kingman,  Fernando de Szyszlo, Roberto Fabelo and Santiago Rebolledo. Boris Viskin, José Antonio Farrera, Héctor de Anda and Gabriel Orozco, will be under the hammer as well.

The Berlinische Galerie Displays “Art in Berlin 1880 – 1980” Posted: 09 Nov 2011 08:31 PM PST Berlin.- Following its redevelopment by Canadian architect David Saik, the Berlinische Galerie has been taking advantage of the opportunities provided to present highlights from its collection of Berlin Art. "Art in Berlin 1880 – 1980" is the ongoing display of works from the collection. David Saik studied art and architecture at the Universities of Alberta, British Columbia and Toronto. He has been working in Berlin since 2002, including in the offices of New York architect  Richard Gluckman, Swiss architects Herzog & De Meuron, and British architect David Chipperfield. He was involved in the concepts for the Deutscher Guggenheim, the De Young Museum in San Francisco, and the Neues Museum in Berlin. He has built a studio for Canadian artist Jeff Wall, realised contemporary art galleries, developed a number of private housing projects for collectors, and is one of those responsible for this year's presentation of artist Steven Shearer in the Canadian pavilion of the Biennale di Venezia 2011.

The Nationalgalerie Hamburger Bahnhof Shows Paul Laffoley's "Secret Universe" Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:50 PM PST Berlin.-  The Hamburger Bahnhof is pleased to present "Secret Universe II: Paul Laffoley" on view through March 4th 2012. In the exhibition series entitled "Secret Universe", the Hamburger Bahnhof is dedicating itself to artists who have largely gone unnoticed within the established art discourse and will feature them in monographic projects. The second exhibition in this series presents works by the American artist and architect Paul Laffoley (born 1940). Since the mid-1960s, Laffoley has confronted scientific, philosophical and spiritual matters in his work with equal verve. He studied art history, history, philosophy and architecture and spent more than 38 years living in a one-room apartment in Boston, which he dubbed the 'Boston Visionary Cell'. He is influenced in his work by his collaboration with the visionary architect Frederick Kiesler, as well as by the theories of Buckminster Fuller and C.G. Jung and the literature of Johann Wolfgang Goethe and William Blake. Another factor that has left a mark on his work is the fact that Laffoley was once engaged by Andy Warhol to watch television through the night on his behalf so that he could keep abreast of events.

Walt Disney Animation Cels Featured in Leslie Hindman Auctioneers Illustration Art Auction Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:49 PM PST Chicago, Illinois.- On Tuesday, November 15, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers will auction an impressive collection of original illustration art belonging to Ralph Esmerian, including early Walt Disney rare animation cels from the 1930's and 1940's and original story-board watercolors from the beloved French children's series, Babar the Elephant. The collection is expected to bring over $50,000. Public previews for the sale will be held Saturday, November 12th 10am – 3pm, Sunday, November 13th 12pm – 5pm, and Monday, November 14th, 10am – 5pm. In the Golden Age of Animation, from 1928 to 1942, Walt Disney studios produced five of the most spectacular feature-length animated films of all time: Snow White and Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi. Their influence remains today, as the studio continues to re-release them from "The Vault" for a new generation.

Pangolin London Exhibits Figurative Sculptures by Anthony Abrahams Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:30 PM PST LONDON.- In a time where vitality focuses primarily on youth, Anthony Abrahams' sculptures are the perfect antidote to ageism as both a celebration of the human spirit and the body in all its forms. Pangolin London presents an exhibition of works of life affirming warmth and beauty with the first London solo show of Anthony Abrahams for over ten years. Encompassing a selection of works from the past two decades, this exhibition is testament to Abrahams' unique artistic talent. Born in London in 1926 Abrahams first attended the University of Cambridge, where he read English, and went on to study painting at the Anglo-French Art Centre in London. Following this he made a successful career in the world of advertising before he turned to his artistic practice full time in 1991.

The Guggenheim Presents an Exhibition Focused on Vasily Kandinsky Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:29 PM PST New York City - Completed nearly 100 years ago, the canvas "Painting with White Border (Bild mit weissem Rand)" by Vasily Kandinsky (1866–1944) was inspired by a trip the artist took to Moscow in fall 1912. Upon his return to Munich, where he had been living intermittently since 1896, Kandinsky searched for a way to visually record the "extremely powerful impressions" of his native Russia that lingered in his memory. Over a period of five months, he explored various motifs and compositions in study after study, moving freely between pencil, pen and ink, watercolor, and oil. After he produced at least sixteen studies, Kandinsky finally arrived at the pictorial solution to the painting: the white border. This focused exhibition, co-organized with the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., will reunite for the first time the Guggenheim's final version of the painting from May 1913 with twelve related drawings and watercolors and one major oil sketch and will feature the results of an extensive conservation study of the Guggenheim and Phillips paintings. This study revealed a previously unknown painting beneath the surface of the Phillips's "Sketch I for Painting with White Border (Moscow)". A rare glimpse into Kandinsky's creative process, this presentation reveals the gradual and deliberate way the artist sought to translate his ideas into a bold new language of abstraction. This focused exhibition traces Kandinsky's working method through a roughly chronological display of twelve drawings and watercolors and one major oil sketch related to Painting with White Border. According to a May 1913 essay Kandinsky wrote about the picture, later published in an album titled Kandinsky 1901–1913 (1913), the artist executed the first oil sketch (owned by the Phillips) "immediately upon my return from Moscow in December 1912." The orientation of his preliminary studies evolved from a vertical to a horizontal format, and he used pencil, pen and ink, and watercolor throughout the many iterations. Kandinsky explored key motifs reminiscent of his native Russia, including the troika (a three-horse sled) and Saint George. Ultimately the artist executed more studies than he had for any of his previous paintings before resolving the composition with a soft, undulating white border that he compared to a white wave. In his seminal 1911 treatise Über das Geistige in der Kunst. Insbesondere in der Malerei (On the Spiritual in Art: And Painting in Particular), Kandinsky wrote that the color white expresses a "harmony of silence. . .pregnant with possibilities." In preparation for this presentation, a team of conservators from the Guggenheim and the Phillips, led by Gillian McMillan, Associate Chief Conservator for the Collection, Guggenheim Museum, and Elizabeth Steele, Head of Conservation, the Phillips Collection, worked with scientists Narayan Khandekar and Erin Mysak from the Straus Center for Conservation, Harvard Art Museum. The group undertook new technical research on the painting and its related oil study, offering further insight into Kandinsky's creative process. The conservators examined "Painting with White Border"and its study "Sketch I for Painting with White Border (Moscow)" side-by-side for the first time. With techniques including infrared imaging, X-radiography, and cross-sectional and chemical analysis of the paints Kandinsky used, conservators scrutinized both paintings, comparing the brushwork, mediums, and development of the compositions. The conservation study supports interpretations of Kandinsky's working method. For example, the direct application of the brush to canvas of "Sketch I" implies a more spontaneous technique as compared to the more methodical treatment of the final work, Painting with White Border, in which Kandinsky used a graphite pencil to lay out compositional elements before painting. Studies of microscopic samples of paint from both works show that Kandinsky created his own palette out of combinations of as many as ten different pigments per hue. The conservation team also discovered a previously unknown painting beneath the surface of Sketch I for Painting with White Border (Moscow). The underpainting, a representational landscape with figures, has been attributed to the German artist Gabriele Münter, Kandinsky's companion from 1903 to 1916, based on its similarity to Münter's gouache, Garden Concert (Gartenkonzert, ca. 1912), on view in this exhibition, and a canvas on the same subject in a private collection. While there are few known instances of Kandinsky painting over an existing canvas and no other known instance of him painting over a work by Münter, limited study has been done of Kandinsky's canvases to date. Future research and conservation analysis may better clarify the attribution of the underpainting. Besides the focused presentation surrounding Painting with White Border, three Kandinsky canvases from 1913, all from the Guggenheim's collection, will be on view in a neighboring gallery. "Black Lines (Schwarze Linien)" and "Light Picture (Helles Bild)", included in this selection of paintings, were both executed in December 1913 and were among the first works the artist considered to be truly non-representational. Along with Painting with White Border, these paintings were also some of the first Kandinsky works to enter Solomon R. Guggenheim's collection. In addition to the artwork on view, interactive touch-screen displays will allow visitors in-depth exploration of the conservation findings, institutional history, and related topics in Kandinsky's oeuvre. An illustrated chronology in the gallery will trace the artist's life in Munich from 1896 through 1914. In an adjacent room, Essay: Painting with White Border, a segment of the film Kandinsky: A Close Look by Grahame Weinbren and commissioned by the Sackler Center for Arts Education, will be screened continuously. This close cinematic examination of "Painting with White Border" is interlaced with voiceovers of the artist's own words from his 1913 essay on the painting. It explores how an artistic interpretation can provide viewers with a visual experience that helps to develop their own observational and critical apparatuses to become more informed and engaged viewers. Kandinsky's work is a cornerstone of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's collection. The museum's founder, industrialist Solomon R. Guggenheim, began acquiring Kandinsky's paintings, including Painting with White Border, as early as 1929. Today, the Guggenheim's holdings of his work are among the most extensive in the world. In 2009, as part of its 50th anniversary celebration, the museum mounted the major retrospective Kandinsky. The opening date of Kandinsky's "Painting with White Border" at the Guggenheim Museum coincides with the 52nd anniversary of the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed building, which opened its doors to the public on October 21, 1959. An internationally renowned art museum and one of the most significant architectural icons of the 20th century, the Guggenheim Museum is at once a vital cultural center, an educational institution, and the heart of an international network of museums. Visitors can experience special exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, lectures by artists and critics, performances and film screenings, classes for teens and adults, and daily tours of the galleries led by experienced docents. Founded on a collection of early modern masterpieces, the Guggenheim Museum today is an ever-growing institution devoted to the art of the 20th century and beyond.The permanent collection of the Guggenheim Foundation embodies the institution's distinctive history, which has intersected with and catalyzed the development of 20th and 21st century art. The story of the Guggenheim collection is essentially the story of several very different private collections that have been brought together. Augmented through numerous acquisitions under the leadership of the Foundation's directors, curators, and international partners, these collections form a unique, shared global collection that reflects the rich trajectory of art from the mid-19th century through the present. Visit the museum's website at ...www.guggenheim.org/new-york

Our Editor Visits Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz ~ One Of The Most Important Museums of Modern & Contemporary Art in Austria Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:20 PM PST From the Celtic for "located at the bend of the river" (also the root of Linz' Latin name "Lentia"), The Lentos Museum of Modern Art, which opened in May 2003, is among the most important museums of modern art in Austria. The clear and coherent structural design, created by the award winning Zurich architects Weber & Hofer, provides Linz with a museum of art of international status, positioned in the urban context. The internationally acclaimed 130 meter long building by the Zurich architects Weber & Hofer provides approximately 8400 m2 for use and is located directly on the Danube River between the Nibelungen Bridge and Brucknerhaus. The appearance of the building is remarkable for its transparent glass casing, attractively lit at night (when it slowly cycles through colour changes from red to blue). The visitor enters through the 60 m long, open air vestibule that appears cut out of the building. The ground floor contains the foyer, museum shop, cafe (with terraced area), the 250-seat auditorium, and the museum education hall. The upper floor houses eleven rooms covering 1800 m² for the permanent collection and a large special exhibition room of roughly 850 m², along with an art cabinet and a reading room, all of which benefit from the available natural light. The expansive basement houses two more exhibition rooms, the library, the depots, workshops, storage rooms and a study hall for graphic arts. As successor institution to the New Gallery of the City of Linz, the Lentos Kunstmuseum, which opened in 2003, is considered one of the most important museums of modern and contemporary art in Austria. Starting from the collection holdings, which focus on masterpieces of European painting from the first half of the 20th century and a rich collection of graphic art and high quality photography, Lentos draws an arch from the classical historical art of the early 20th century to the most current art positions of today. Art as a medium for understanding the world, art as a catalyst for experiencing the individual reality of life, but also art as a means of probing social possibilities: these are key concepts that determine how the exhibition program and the broad-ranging events that enhance the program of the museum are conceived and communicated. Building on the collection of the Berlin art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt (1888-1965), the holdings have been richly expanded since 1953. The Collection consists of roughly 1,800 works of painting, sculpture and object art as well as over 17,000 works on paper, including 850 photographs. The earliest works in the museum are from the first half of the 19th century (C.D. Friedrich, J.B. Reiter) whilst the landscape and portrait painting of the 19th century is represented with masterpieces of German Romanticism, Austrian Biedermeier, Historicism, Atmospheric Impressionism and the Secessionism. Art - a means of life - this is what the Lentos invites the visitor to enjoy. Visit the museum's website at : http://www.lentos.at The collection of The Lentos Museum is filled with unique fine art. In the field of classical Modernism, Lentos has important paintings by Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, Corinth and Pechstein. From the inter-war period there are works of German and Austrian Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit (Carl Hofer, Franz Sedlacek, Albin Egger-Lienz,Müller and Modersohn-Becker). The period after 1945 is illustrated with works of international art, including paintings, sculptures and graphic works by Appel, Bayer, Nay, Warhol, Haring, Lassnig, Lüpertz, Rainer, Chillida, Cragg, Sean Scully, and Balkenhol. Highlights of the collection include meditative, abstract expressions of the 1980s and 1990s, the generation of the former "New Wild Ones" by Herbert Brandl, Hubert Scheibl, Kurt Kocherscheidt, Gunter Damisch and Otto Zitko, "Paradise" by the German "prince of painters" Markus Lüpertz or Sean Scully's "archangel Uriel". Figurative painting, is represented by the Swiss hyper-realist Franz Gertsch, whose girls on the beach are still enchanting, and by the "shock artist" Gottfried Helnwein. In addition to the outstanding graphic art collection with important compilations from Kubin to Pop Art, Lentos also has several hundred art-historically significant photographs (A. Rodtschenko, Man Ray, H. Bayer). The collection of sculptures, statues and objects of the Lentos Kunstmuseum includes about 450 exhibits. The earliest works are from the period of Austrian Expressionism. In addition to a bronze head by Egon Schiele (1916-1918) and the bronze sculpture Burning Man created in 1922 by Anton Hanák, there are examples of German Expressionism by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, which make up the historical foundation of the collection. An example of realistic post-war art in Austria is Alfred Hrdlicka's Gladiator (model: 1965, cast 1999). Plexiglas objects by Cornelius Kolig exemplify Pop Art tendencies in Austria. Many of the sculptures stem from the 1980s and 1990s, including works by Sepp Auer, Manfred Erjautz, Bruno Gironcoli, Manfred Wakolbinger and Erwin Wurm. International artists are represented by Stephan Balkenhol, Ernst Barlach, Michael Buthe, Anthony Caro, Amadeo Gabino, Jiri Kolar, and Tom Wesselmann in the collection. The graphic art holdings of the Lentos currently include some 10,000 exhibits. Starting from works of Impressionism, Expressionism and Secessionism (including Max Liebermann, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Käthe Kollwitz, Oskar Kokoschka), and trends of Neue Sachlichkeit (Franz Sedlacek, Karl Rössing, Joseph Binder, Rudolf Baschant), collection interests shifted beginning in the 1960s and even more so in the 1970s towards Abstract Expressionism (including Pierre Alechinsky, Hans Staudacher, Antoni Tápies) and cycles of etchings and lithographic series by Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró. The collection is continued with Pop Art (including Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Jim Dine) and recent and contemporary trends in Austrian art (including Uli Aigner, Siegfried Anzinger, Christian Ludwig Attersee, Dietmar Brehm, Kurt Kappa Kocherscheidt, Maria Lassnig, Ulrike Lienbacher, Arnulf Rainer, Roman Scheidl and Othmar Zechyr). Alfred Hrdlicka's print graphic oeuvre, extensive graphic cycles by Alfred Kubin, Margret Bilger, Honoré Daumier, Karl Rossing and the Gugging artists (including Johann Hauser, Oswald Tschirtner, August Walla) are special focal points of the collection. The photo collection of the LENTOS Kunstmuseum currently includes about 1,100 exhibits. It focuses on historical photography, new objectivity, artist portraits, post-war photography affiliated with the "Magnum" photo agency and contemporary positions. The foundation of the collection includes historical photographs by Nadar, Lewis Carroll, Frederick H. Evans, John Jabez Edwin Mayall and Roger Fenton. The acquisition of so-called New Media - primarily analog and digital video - first began in the 2000s. The Collection holdings are consequently in development. New media works are a recent addition to the museum's collection portfolio, but have been acquired in recent years from international and Austrian artists, who have been presented in solo or thematic exhibitions. Two exhibitions are currently running at the Lentos. Siegfried Anzinger respospective (until 13th March 2011). Siegfried Anzinger is one of the most internationally acclaimed Austrian painters and artists and has already received the highest awards. Anziger is associated with Upper Austria and in particular with the Lentos, having held his an advance viewing of his first retrospective at the old Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz in 1986. The show at the Lentos provides a comprehensive insight into the varied work of the artist. In the center of the exhibition are recent paintings, drawings and sculptures, which are confronted with early examples of selected major works. Large canvases from the early works are presented as well as the first Austrian showing of works from 2009/2010 including paradise pictures, ranges of self-portraits, saints, cowboys and indians. In conjunction with the Belvedere in Vienna, the Lentos is also exhibiting: Valie Export ~ "Time and Countertime" (until 30th January 2011). The focus of both simultaneously planned exhibitions in the Belvedere and Lentos is on the work of the artist from the past 20 years, which consist primarily of large-scale installations. Based on these works, themes derive their content, have a formal relationship, or imply a substantive continuation from the artists earlier works. The development and advancement of artistic motifs, their semantic shifts, their character and their multitude of different media and diversity are able to be adequately presented in the Vienna and Linz facilities. Here, the autonomous exhibitions will complement the content and interlink with each other to make the Valie Export a multi-dimensional and multi-media space experience. The two exhibitions will present various strands, including work on injury and violence, the image of women and their fitting into, modification and conversion by architecture, town or countryside, but also to psychological states, as well as confusing worlds of perception and linguistic expressions.

Met Museum's Installation Positions African Masks with Works by Modern & Contemporary Artists Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:19 PM PST NEW YORK, NY.- Highly creative re-imaginings of the iconic form of the African mask comprise a unique installation held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning March 8. Featuring 20 works of art—19 sculptures and one photograph—Reconfiguring an African Icon: Odes to the Mask by Modern and Contemporary Artists from Three Continents reflects on the enduring relevance of African masks as a source of inspiration for artists across cultures into the present. Highlights of the installation are whimsical sculptures created from discarded consumption goods by contemporary artists Romuald Hazoumé (b. 1962) and Calixte Dakpogan (b. 1958), both from the Republic of Benin. Seventeen of the 20 works selected are on loan from European and American private collections; the others are drawn from the Museum's own collection.

12th Annual Art London to Open in Chelsea with More than 70 Art Galleries Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:18 PM PST LONDON.- Some 70 art galleries from the UK and around the world are exhibiting at the 12th annual Art London, which opens in the special marquee at the Royal Hospital in London's fashionable Chelsea from Thursday 7 until Monday 11 October 2010. The eclectic mix of art on sale offers visitors works by internationally renowned names, as well as accomplished emerging artists. The art comes in many forms and media, including: paintings, drawings, glass works, sculpture and photography. These all sell from a few hundred pounds to six figures sums.

Albertina Museum shows The Collection of Eberhard W. Kornfeld Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:17 PM PST   Vienna, Austria - The Albertina Museum presents Routes Through Modern Art - From The Collection of Eberhard W. Kornfeld, on view through Fabruary 8, 2009. In honour of the 85th birthday of Swiss art dealer Eberhard W. Kornfeld, some 200 works from his remarkable private art collection are on exhibit at the Albertina. The auction house owner and art publisher is a distinguished expert on prints and the author of catalogues raisonnés on Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Marc Chagall, Käthe Kollwitz and numerous other artists. Like the collection as a whole, the exhibition focuses on multifaceted selections of their works, as well as works by the collector's close friends Pablo Picasso, Sam Francis and Alberto Giacometti.

Marc Chagall's Illustrations for Gogol's "Dead Souls" at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:16 PM PST TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - In the spring of 1931, Marc Chagall set sail for a visit in Eretz-Israel. He had been invited by Tel Aviv Mayor Meir Dizengoff, following their acquaintance in Paris in 1930. Chagall was taken with Dizengoff's passion to establish a museum in the emerging Jewish city, and agreed to join the Paris Committee set up to promote the project. Chagall brought a gift, his series of prints illustrating Nikolai Gogol's novel Dead Souls. The series was personally dedicated to Dizengoff, and was intended to enrich the collection of the museum, due to open in 1932.

With More Than 80 Galleries Art Dubai Presents Its Most Diverse Edition To Date Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:15 PM PST DUBAI.- Welcoming a total of 81 galleries from 34 countries—with one-third of the participants based in the Middle East, one-third in Europe and one-third in the United States and Asia—the latest edition of Art Dubai is presented from Wednesday, 16 March through Saturday, 19 March 2011, under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai. This year's Art Dubai, the first organised under the leadership of Fair Director Antonia Carver, is also the most diverse and forward-looking to date for the Middle East's largest contemporary art event. This year, Art Dubai also launches Art Week, an initiative showcasing the broad programme of cultural events taking place across the UAE and Qatar in March. "Dubai has been a trading post and meeting point for South Asia, Iran, the Arab world and Africa for hundreds of years," said Antonia Carver. "Over the past decade, Dubai has become the commercial art centre of the region and a city of ideas and entrepreneurship, providing homegrown support for artists, exhibitions and galleries. Through the fair and our platforms for dialogue, Art Dubai has been an integral part of this development and while rooted in the region, we are committed to looking to the future and continuing our role as a catalyst linking Asia and the Middle East with the rest of the world." Antonia Carver continued, "We aim for Art Dubai to be a fair of discovery – for the international collectors, curators, artists, gallerists and museum groups that attend the fair aiming to catch up on all that's happening in the Middle East and South Asia, and for those based in the region to engage with the most dynamic of international galleries. At Art Dubai, these audiences will be able to discover the work of more than 500 artists, as presented in booths, installations, performances, dispatches, talks and screenings." Showcasing paintings, sculpture, photography, works on paper and video installations from a host of first-timers as well as returning galleries, the fifth edition of Art Dubai features exciting work from emerging artists and museum-quality masterworks. The fair features an ambitious range of galleries, with more than a dozen significant, curatorially focused galleries exhibiting in the Middle East for the first time; an increased number of single-artist gallery shows, allowing viewers to delve into an artist's practice in depth; and the strongest showing ofgalleries from Turkey and South Asia to date. This year also sees the debut of MARKER, a new platform for experimental art spaces from Asia and the Middle East showcasing projects by emerging artists. Curated by Nav Haq, this section includes five dynamic project spaces: Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (Alexandria, Egypt), GREY NOISE (Lahore, Pakistan), Liu Ding's Store (Beijing, China), Makan (Amman, Jordan) and Ruangrupa (Jakarta, Indonesia). Each organisation will present new projects that have been conceived specifically for Art Dubai and that bridge the gap between the commercial and curatorial components of the art fair. Programming for the fair includes Global Art Forum _5, a four-day series of discussions curated by a committee chaired by Shumon Basar, which explores how a changed world has changed audiences for contemporary art, how expectations have affected artists and their work, and how art and fashion collide. The result of a dynamic partnership between Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage (ADACH), Ministry of Culture, Kingdom of Bahrain, this year's forum is the most collaborative yet. Speakers include: Hans Ulrich Olbrist, Co-Director, Exhibitions and Programmes, and Director of International Projects, Serpentine Gallery, London; Francesco Vezzoli, artist; Germano Celant, Director, Fondazione Prada; Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, Founder, Barjeel Art Foundation; Wassan Al Khudhairi, Director, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art; and Vasif Kortun, Director of Research and Programs, SALT, Istanbul; Curator, UAE Pavilion for the Venice Biennale 2011. Natascha Sadr Haghighian, this year's Global Art Forum Artist-inResidence, responds to the discussions through a bibliographic journey hosted on www.artdubai.ae. 2011 also marks the launch of Forum Fellows, a programme that offers a group of young curators and artists from Abu Dhabi, Antakya, Dhaka, Karachi, Jerusalem and Tehran the opportunity to engage with all aspects of the fair. In addition to the Global Art Forum, Art Dubai hosts a series of talks including On Collecting, focusing on arts patronage; Art Park Talks, which include performances, conversations and practical workshops; and THE BIG IDEA, a dynamic forum for UAE-based artists and designers, organised by Bidoun Projects. Art Dubai Projects takes an observational, almost anthropological approach to the gallery metropolis created by Art Dubai. The rich programme of new works and performances includes painters Ali Chitsaz and Mounira Al Sohl in collaboration with Bassam Ramlawi taking on the theme of 'labour' in a live mural; the commissioning of Oraib Toukan to create a new work within the grounds of the fair while Hrair Sarkissian has adapted an existing work that – in its new state – plays with the façade of Madinat Jumeirah; works created by Abbas Akhavan and Shaikha Al Mazrou during the Delfina Foundation's eight-week residency programme in Bastakiya, with the support of Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) and Tashkeel; performative tours of the fair by Malak Helmy and Abhishek Hazra; a bank of radio dispatches from artists' studios curated by The Island (Victoria Brooks and Andrew Bonacina); and Art Park, a series of films, talks and projects curated by Bidoun Projects that features retrospectives of video artists Wael Shawky and Sherif El-Azma. Visitors to the fair will be the first in the world to see the completed works of the five recipients of the third annual Abraaj Capital Art Prize (ACAP) .Winners of this year's prize include Hamra Abbas, Jananne Al-Ani, Shezad Dawood, Nadia Kaabi-Linke and Timo Nasseri with guest curator Sharmini Perreira. Footnotes to a Project*, a specially commissioned book project tracing the process of production for each artist's work for ACAP 2011 and launches on the fair's closing day. In addition, visitors to Art Dubai can enter the fantasy world created in the Van Cleef & Arpels exhibition Les Voyages Extraordinaires, inspired by four stories by the French writer Jules Verne: Five Weeks in a Balloon, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.

Tamara de Lempicka's Art Deco Paintings on View for the First Time in Mexico City Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:14 PM PST MEXICO CITY.- President Felipe Calderón inaugurated the Tamara de Lempicka Exhibition at the Palace of Fine Arts, adding that during his government, an enormous effort has been made to enable Mexicans to discover and enjoy great national and international exhibitions, some of which have been unparalleled. He said that Tamara de Lempicka belongs to the great 20th Century women painters who were attracted to Mexico and found refuge and a source of inspiration here, such as Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington and Alice Rahon. Of Tamara de Lempicka, the President said that her fascinating, avant-garde plastic discourse made her one of the main exponents of Art Déco. The exhibition gathers 48 paintings, 15 works on paper and 21 photographs, that come from private collections in France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, United States and Mexico. It is important to mention that Jack Nicholson's collection has been included in the show.

" EAT ART " Exhibition opens at the Kunsthalle Dusseldorf Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:13 PM PST DUSSELDORF.- Eat Art, a term coined by Daniel Spoerri for art made with and involving food, has its institutionalized origins in Düsseldorf. Two years after opening his restaurant at the Burgplatz, the Swiss artist founded the Eat Art Gallery in 1970 and inspired numerous artists to produce various editions made of edible materials and food wastes. The exhibition "Eating the Universe" — a title created in the 1970's by Peter Kubelka, former professor for Film and Cooking at the Frankfurt Städelschule, for a TV-show about cooking as an artistic genre — takes generous stock of the phenomena from today's perspective and traces the original character of eat art from its origins until today. On exhibition through 28 February, 2010.

The Walters Art Museum to exhibit "Heroes: Mortals & Myths in Ancient Greece" Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:12 PM PST BALTIMORE, MD.- From ancient times to present day, heroes and heroines have played vital cultural roles in society by defining trends, creating norms and shaping behavior. Sometimes heroes are portrayed as superhuman protagonists while at other times they emerge as average people who rise above the ordinary. Heroes are acknowledged with admiration by the mass media and sometimes even with offerings, rituals or monuments. On view Oct. 11, 2009 through Jan. 3, 2010, at the Walters Art Museum, Heroes: Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece will explore the inherent human need for heroes through the arts of one of the oldest and most influential cultures in history.

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute to show 19th Century Photographs of Rome Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:11 PM PST WILLIAMSTOWN, MA.- Through 100 photographs taken between 1850 and 1880, the exhibition Steps off the Beaten Path: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Rome and its Environs encourages a "walking tour" through Rome with recognizable sites among the out-of-the-way scenes nineteenth-century Romans and Europeans encountered in their daily lives. The exhibition opens at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on Sunday, October 11th through 3 January, 2010,

Lentos Art Museum celebrates Oskar Kokoschka ~ A Vagabond in Linz : Wild & Denigrated Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:10 PM PST LINZ, AUSTRIA - In the exhibition Oskar Kokoschka - A Vagabond in Linz. Wild, denigrated, celebrated, the Lentos Art Museum documents the great Austrian painter, who was a non-conformist all his life, and focuses on his contacts with Linz. This extensive show presents 40 paintings, 49 watercolors and drawings, and about 27 prints as well as 36 photographies from 20 museums, galleries and private collections abroad and ten from Austria. On exhibition through 5 October, 2008. The Lentos Art Museum and the City Museum Nordico, which with five paintings, 15 drawings and over 100 lithographs are among the most important Kokoschka collections in Austria, show their rich Kokoschka holdings collected in an exhibition for the first time. Kokoschka's personal contacts and friendships with art historians, gallerists, high-ranking city officials and politicians in Linz were the basis of the ties between the artist from Pöchlarn and the capital of the federal province of Upper Austria. The first contact was established by Wolfgang Gurlitt (1888-1965), art dealer from Berlin and founder of the New Gallery of the City of Linz, which became the Lentos Art Museum. His successors Walter Kasten and Peter Baum and the mayor at that time, Ernst Koref, maintained a close artistic exchange with Kokoschka through purchases, commissioned works and numerous exhibitions. This bears witness to the important art historical pioneering role of the city of Linz as well as to the city's special engagement in the relationship to Kokoschka.  Kokoschka's first exhibition after World War II in Austria was shown at the New Gallery of the City of Linz in the summer of 1951. Several paintings from this sensational exhibition - Die Freunde (1917), Vater Hirsch (1909), Marcel von Nemes (1929) - and many print graphic works were added to the Museum Collection through purchase in 1953 and are still today among the international highlights of the Lentos Collection. This exhibition, which was highly successful and had a strong media presence, is reconstructed on the basis of the works shown then in rooms in the main square of Linz and supplemented with press reviews and photographic documents. A special focal point deals with the National-Socialist understanding of art that branded Kokoschka as a "degenerate" artist. More than 400 of his works were confiscated, nine of them denounced in the exhibition "Degenerate Art" in 1937 in Munich and eleven other stations (including Vienna and Salzburg). Some of the "degenerate" and confiscated works are shown for the first time in this sensitive context. All the provenances of the Kokoschka holdings of the Lentos are published in the accompanying catalogue, which also details the complex history of purchases and origins of the works acquired by Gurlitt at the Fischer auction in Lucerne. A special area is devoted to the photographs, which have been continuously collected and presented and developed in scholarly treatment since the opening of the New Gallery in 1946. The rich holdings of the Lentos Collection include incunabula of Austrian reportage photography, including works by Erich Lessing, Franz Hubmann and Peter Baum, which show Oskar Kokoschka in vitality and artistic passion. The exhibition covers a broad range: works are presented in the show from Kokoschka's controversial early work, from the lively years of traveling, and also paintings, watercolors, color pencil drawings and posters created in exile in England - a rich selection of exhibits with important paintings, illuminating photo documents and audio material presented for the first time, much of this with a unique relevance to Linz. The exhibition comprising 139 works provides insights into an oeuvre marked by strokes of fate, which underwent a fascinating thematic and stylistic development. The presentation of over sixty years of creative production (the earliest watercolor is from 1905, the last from 1967) enables a comparison of styles from the different phases of the artist's work.  As successor institution to the New Gallery of the City of Linz, the Lentos Art Museum, which opened in May 2003, is among the most important museums of modern art in Austria. 120 important art works from the collection of the Berlin art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt (1888 - 1965), including paintings and graphic works by Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, Nolde, Corinth and Pechstein, formed the foundation for the collection of the New Gallery of the City of Linz after World War II. Building on these holdings, the city of Linz decided in 1953 to continue the New Gallery as a city museum with an active exhibition program and acquisition policies. As a museum today, Lentos presents and communicates significant themes and positions of contemporary art production in relation to 20th century art history. This is exemplified by displaying works and schools of modern art and their consequences, whereby the Lentos collection is highlighted in specific selections according to alternating focal points. Visit the Lentos Art Museum at : www.lentos.at/en/

Art Knowledge News Presents "This Week In Review" Posted: 09 Nov 2011 07:09 PM PST This is a new feature for the subscribers and visitors to Art Knowledge News (AKN), that will enable you to see "thumbnail descriptions" of the last ninety (90) articles and art images that we published. This will allow you to visit any article that you may have missed ; or re-visit any article or image of particular interest. Every day the article "thumbnail images" will change. For you to see the entire last ninety images just click : here . When opened that also will allow you to change the language from English to anyone of 54 other languages, by clicking your language choice on the upper left corner of our Home Page.  You can share any article we publish with the eleven (11) social websites we offer like Twitter, Flicker, Linkedin, Facebook, etc. by one click on the image shown at the end of each opened article.  Last, but not least, you can email or print any entire article by using an icon visible to the right side of an article's headline.

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